Flour Mills trading close to 10 year low on the Nigerian Stock Exchange

Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc was one of the worst performing stocks last week, shedding 12.10% to close at N13.80.

Year to date, the stock is down 40.26%, underperforming the Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index which is down 1.75% year to date.

The stock is also trading at levels last seen in almost a decade. The stock last traded at these levels in July 2009.

Why is the share price tanking? :The drop in the company’s share price can be attributed to two reasons: general market sentiments which have been poor, and the company’s poor results.

Save for a brief rally following the listing of MTN Nigeria, the All Share Index was down close to 8% and was one of the worst performing frontier markets year to date.

Investor apathy, driven by unclear economic direction, has left many of them staying on the sidelines.

Poor results:The company’s nine months results also show a decline in both topline and bottom line. Revenue fell by 6.3% from N427 billion in 2018 to N400 billion in 2019. Profit fell much more sharply. Profit before tax fell by 42.5% from N19.5 billion in 2018 to N11.2 billion in 2019. Profit after tax also fell from N13.2 billion in 2018 to N7.8 billion in 2019, down 40.9%

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Onome Ohwovoriole has a degree in Economics and Statistics from the University of Benin and prior to joining Nairametrics in December 2016 as Lead Analyst had stints in Publishing, Automobile Services, Entertainment and Leadership Training.
He covers companies in the Nigerian corporate space, especially those listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
He also has a keen interest in new frontiers like Cryptocurrencies and Fintech. In his spare time, he loves to read books on finance, fiction as well as keep up with happenings in the world of international diplomacy.
You can contact him via onome.ohwovoriole@nairametrics.com

2 Comments

2 Comments

Voke

May 27, 2019 at 6:59 am

Thanks for this piece of information, Nairametrics. In view of the Buy Low, Sell High principle, do you have a Buy recommendation of this stock, at the moment?

Lagos state government has stated that businesses may not be allowed to open after 2 weeks unless they successfully obtain the provisional clearance certificate as directed.

The provisional clearance certificate is the final clearance given to businesses under the Register-to-open initiative, certifying that they have fulfilled all conditions as required and may now be allowed to commence operations in line with the given safety guidelines.

According to a tweet at the official twitter handle of the Lagos state government, business owners and managers who wish to commence operations must put in place the appropriate facilities and working environment to help contain the spread of the COVID-19.

“Appropriate screening equipment for COVID-19, such as contactless temperature checkers must be available for entrants into the facility; separate ingress and egress points must be conducted in a staggered and orderly manner,” the Director-General, Lagos State Safety Commission, Mr. Lanre Mojola said in the tweet.

Mojola added that relaxation centres such as bars, nightclubs, spas, gyms, cinemas and parks are to remained closed until further directives are given to them, after subsequent review of the situation.

However, social clubs with registered trustees will be permitted to open in two weeks’ time upon obtaining provisional clearance certificate, Mojola stated.

He stated that eateries and restaurants outside hotels are only permitted to offer take-out services as no dining activity will be tolerated.

Mojola emphasized that registration for the mandatory ‘Register-To-Open’ policy is at zero cost, easy and user friendly, urging that businesses that are yet to obtain the safety compliance certificates should ensure registration on the portal as stipulated and await their clearance.

The spread of novel Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) in Nigeria continues to rise as the latest statistics provided by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control reveal Nigeria now has 12,233 confirmed cases.

On the 6th of June 2020, 389 new confirmed cases and 9 deaths were recorded in Nigeria.

To date, 12233 cases have been confirmed, 3826 cases have been discharged and 342 deaths have been recorded in 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory having carried out 74,999 tests.

Lock Down and Curfew

In a move to combat the spread of the pandemic disease, President Muhammadu Buhari directed the cessation of all movements in Lagos and the FCT for an initial period of 14 days, which took effect from 11 pm on Monday, 30th March 2020.

The movement restriction, which was extended by another two-weeks period, has been partially put on hold with some businesses commencing operations from May 4. On April 27th, 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari declared an overnight curfew from 8 pm to 6 am across the country, as part of new measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19. This comes along with the phased and gradual easing of lockdown measures in FCT, Lagos, and Ogun States, which took effect from Saturday, 2nd May 2020, at 9 am.

Nigerians now seeing CBN Intervention funds as audio money

When the COVID-19 pandemic came with all her fangs, world leaders swung into action with the creation of intervention funds and palliatives to ease the burden of the average citizen.

In Nigeria, asides the palliatives of foodstuff given by state and federal governments alike, drums were rolled when the Central Bank of Nigeria disclosed its support for critical sectors of the economy.

The apex bank first initiated a fund of N50 billion soft loan to small businesses. The N50 billion Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) was to serve as a stimulus package to support households and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) whose economic activities have been significantly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The financial institution for the scheme is NIRSAL Microfinance Bank (NMFB) and the interest rate under the intervention was fixed at 5% per annum (all-inclusive) up to February 28, 2021, and thereafter, the interest on the facility shall revert to 9% per annum (all-inclusive) as from March 1, 2021.

Next, it increased its intervention by another N100billion in loans to support health authorities to ensure laboratories, researchers, and innovators work with global scientists to patent and produce vaccines and test kits in Nigeria so as to prepare for possible crisis ahead.

Finally, it increased its intervention in boosting local manufacturing and import substitution by another N1 trillion across all critical sectors of the economy.

Despite the rhetoric, majority of Nigerians are still wary of the so called N1 trillion intervention fund. The CBN is yet to issue any policy guideline for its implementation and failed to provide further details in its monetary policy committee meeting held last week. This has led many to start to view these promises as “audio money” a social media term for financial promises that are never fulfilled.

The Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) Microfinance bank, on behalf of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has started the disbursement of the N50 billion Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) to the beneficiaries. As at April, it noted that it had received over 80,000 applications for the facility, out of which 40,000 of them were households.

As expected with such funding, the sentiments have been both positive and negative. While some have said they have gotten the funds, others have complained incessantly about the various challenges encountered in the process of obtaining or applying for the loans.Pockets of tweets revealed the general struggles of obtaining the loans. Several applicants have complained about not being able to open accounts or access the facilities and others have complained about making inquiries without responses.

Bola Murtala explained to Nairametrics that “I applied online around the 30th of April, filled out the forms, and submitted. After I got a reply in my email that my application has been received, but then I haven’t heard back from them since then. I wouldn’t know what’s going on but I have seen people who say they got an approval. How far it is true, I wouldn’t know.”

Another applicant, Okey Adinde, said “I applied and received a message telling me that I will be contacted if there was any other document required and if I didn’t send that document after 72 hours after the mail, my application will be declined. Since then, I have not heard from them.”

One Twitter user also complained about being asked to tender collaterals even though the loans do not require any.

Clearly, the program is not without its own hiccups. During an interview with ChannelsTV, the Managing Director of NIRSAL Microfinance Bank Plc, Abubakar Kure, explained that the nationwide lockdown and restrictions had a major challenge to the smooth processing of the facility. Yet, on the company’s website, it claims to have disbursed over N25 billion and going.

However, there are positive comments too:

Fidelis Ayebae, the chief executive officer of Fidson Healthcare Plc. explained thathis company had received N2.5 billion from the central bank’s coronavirus intervention fund. Dollar scarcity and a weakening naira had heightened the inflation oninputs of many pharmaceutical firms in the country.

“You now have a situation where nobody is holding letters of credit, no manufacturer is getting anything from their suppliers abroad because even the ones that we owe, we are not able to pay,” said Ayebae, who also heads the 180-member pharmaceutical group of Nigeria’s manufacturers association.

In truth, sentiments on the program is still burdened with the same lack of faith and trust in systemic leadership and Nigerians have had their fair share of disappointments. Even as the CBN and NIRSAL have set off on a good note by augmenting businesses and individuals in key areas to withstand the impact of the pandemic, the need fortransparency cannot be overemphasized.

By employing tighter systems, particularly in the area of customer relations, while also clearly disclosing its activities, the system will assuage the fears of Nigerians whose faiths have been battered by deceptive leadership amongst others.

It is only then that they’ll know for sure that the days of audio money are over and that its leaders can be trusted.